"There’s enough games left, there’s 11 games. It is wide open. We have got to go to Villa, we have got to go to Reading, we have got Wigan here.

"I still fancy us. We’ve got nothing to lose, everyone thinks we are gone [but] you can change it so quickly."

The ex-Pompey boss celebrates his 66th birthday next weekend as his side take on another of his former clubs, Southampton, and Redknapp wryly predicted a rough afternoon for himself at St Mary's Stadium.

He joked: "I’ve been thinking to myself, 'There is no better way to spend my birthday than spend 90 minutes getting abuse at Southampton Football Club'.

"They’ll be calling me ‘scummer’ because of my time at Portsmouth. That is a great way to spend my 66th birthday."